Heartbreak Hotel

Since my baby left me...

I've found a new place to dwell!

You're probably wondering what's up with the Elvis song, so watch (and listen to) this...

You haven't bonded with your baby brother until...

1...you've had a Tupperware party picnic with him! Genna made Isaac some soup this morning while playing with him. He seemed to enjoy his fists more than the pretend soup that Genna was feeding him.

2...he's spit up all over your face! I didn't get a picture of this one, but I wish I could've! He seriously puked all over her face and clothes. It was in her hair and it took some time to get it out of her eyelashes. She was spitting it out of her own mouth and crying. "How degusting!" is all she can say about that experience.

A cake for some friends...

Here is a picture of the cowboy boot birthday cake that I made this weekend for a friend of mine's two son's party. They love cowboy stuff and she had these boot candles so I made this using a rectangular pan. I drew a boot on a paper bag and cut out the cake using that as a template. I found a couple pictures online of boot drawing and clip art and combined a few for the design. The kids had too much fun to stay still for pictures, so this is the only one that wasn't blurry. Genna looked like a real cowgirl riding this horse!

die Kurbis

Pumpkin Carving

Hannah actually got her hands dirty this year only to wipe them off in between every grab of pumpkin goo.

Final product: Flower face pumpkin with all the kids names on it

I got a little creative here, but then realized it took way more time than I had and the girls had lost all interest since they didn't get to play with the knives. So we ended up with only one small flower on the side.

Crazy Dress Up!

Wow! What a picture! This girl's got style and personality!

The girls think you get married by dancing in fancy clothes since the only wedding picture that I have up of Brian and I is the one of our first dance. :) So here they are "getting married."

Here's the happy couple!

Our Little Aggies

The Aggie Trio

I love this outfit! It is a sweatshirt material and great for cuddling with my son.

Milestones coming out our ears!

Isaac is holding his head up very well now! He has rolled over too, once from his back to his tummy and four or five times from his tummy to his back. He's batting and grabbing at toys, but isn't too successful most of the time yet. He's moving towards a good schedule during the day and doing well most nights too. I think Genna was almost four months before she could hold her head up this well (but her head was not proportionate to her body, 50%ile body vs. 95%ile head, so I guess that's to be expected.)

Here's one of Isaac's sleepy cues!

The Beloved Dog

The girls got this dog from their Gigi and Poppy two Christmases ago. Well, I used to keep it on Hannah's bed, but I moved it a while back to the floor by her big window to play and read on. This turned this dog into an instant hit. I didn't get a picture of Genna on it, but I got the other two. Everyone loves it! We read bedtime stories on it too now since Hannah's bed was getting too small for us...too much pushing for room going on up there. Hannah even falls asleep there sometimes. I have caught her many a night sleeping on the dog with the light on because she got scared in the middle of the night. (I gave her a brighter night light, but it still happens from time to time.)

Isaac chills out there while the girls play house. They bring him play food and include him in the fun. Murray, our dog also enjoys this soft place to lay instead of the hard floor. The only one who I have not caught on this dog is the cat, Trinity. Here's a picture of Murray and Isaac sharing the dog!

Hannah fell asleep during quiet time yesterday and took a nap here. She sleeps in the weirdest positions!

How Sweet!

Kids say the darnedest things...

Genna is my "Little Dipper." She dips everything in anything she can get her hands on. I mean any condiment on the table must be on her plate for dipping. She's tried Tabasco sauce just because it was on the table many times (and still hasn't learned,) and even dipped her PB&J in Ranch once just because there was nothing left to dip. Ketchup and Ranch are the family favorites for veggie dipping. So last night she asked for Ranch to dip her steamed broccoli in. I was opening a new bottle when she says, "Mommy, that says 'You better be good and eat your food' on the bottle." :) I think that is funny that she would associate the Ranch bottle with the thing I say constantly at the dinner table. Makes sense to me!

Make me super!

I love these things! They didn't have either version of Genna's name though.

Super Hannah

Super Girl Genevieve

All Three

Hannah at swimming lessons

She's in the middle with her teacher.

Genevieve watching and waiting at Hannah's swimming lessons

I love overalls on her! I like this look she's got going in this next picture.

Isaac in his crib wearing 6-9 month clothes at a mere 2 months of age. :) I don't know why this makes me so proud. Maybe because the girls wore the same size forever and still seem to grow at a snails pace. Genna still can wear some of her 18-24 month clothes at 2 years.

My "High" for today!

Isaac's first laugh (at least while he is awake)! Here it is!



I taught the girls the "High/Low" game and we play it at dinner time. Hannah always has a million "highs" and one "low" which is great! I have happy children!

Some more of our adventure in Rothenberg last weekend!

Here's my favorite! Genna and the armor!

The is a Schneeball, translated as "snowball." It was just so so, but without the chocolate covering it wouldn't have even scored that high. It has potential though. I may try to make a tastier dough and make our own version of this German treat.

Isaac spent most of the day in the Snugli pack on Daddy. Daddy didn't even want to give him up when it was time to nurse.

I was a little nervous about this one, hence the hand in the picture. It was a long way down!

Genna spent most of the time in the stroller since she is the "slowest walker ever!"

Here's the little guy in the stroller...

Is she doing Tai Chi?

What a natural poser!

Our Day: ECHO's, Swiming Lessons, Sweet Prayers, and Peppercorns

Isaac had his ECHO today and he does have a small hole in his heart. It is called a ventricular apical septal defect. Usually they close on their own by 1 year. His is constrictive which is good. It means that as the heart muscle contracts the hole constricts (or gets smaller.) So, it isn't serious even if it doesn't close as far as I understand. Thank God!

Hannah had her first swimming lessons today. I watched from behind a glass wall and all I saw were smiles...well, and Hannah interrupting the lesson to show the teacher her painted nails. :) She went under lots of times, jumped off the side to the teacher, learned water safety, and practiced floating. She even got to go on the huge winding slide, the highlight of the lesson! She loved it and wants to go back! Success!

At the grocery store, I was looking for mini pumpkins to put tea light candles in for fall decoration. They were all gone and I commented to Genna that I was so sad that I didn't buy them last week because now I can't find any. She said, "God, please help my mom find the little pumpkins." She was an angel all morning and quite the opposite all afternoon. Hannah's swimming lessons run into nap time a bit which makes for a cranky Genna!

I screwed up dinner tonight. Well, it wasn't totally ruined I guess. I made a creamy chicken and potato soup and towards the end I added the salt and started grinding pepper into it. That's when it happened! The bottom fell right off of the pepper grinder and millions of whole peppercorns went right into the soup! I spent more time picking them all out than I did cooking the meal in the first place. It was still a bit peppery though!

I love Autumn!

I had no idea how beautiful autumn could be until we moved away from Texas. Upstate New York had amazing fall seasons, and so does Germany!


Some of these photos did not turn out as well as I hoped because many are a bit blurry and the girls had a hard time keeping their eyes open because of the glare. Isaac missed out on these because he got fussy right before and then fell asleep.

A sweet German lady sweeping up leaves offered her broom for our photo shoot.

Here I am holding a sleeping Isaac after we finished taking pictures.


Here the girls are with their friends who according to Genna "are my friends that make me laugh like this (demonstrates laugh)."

My big boy and our busy weekend!

Well, here are the promised pictures of my 2 month old! I call him "The Tank." :)

I love this half smile!

At the doctor's office last week, he was a real show off. The doc said he was as strong as a 4 month old when she put him on his tummy and held him up to "stand." So here he is holding up that head. He can do it from flat on the ground too, but I have a hard time getting a picture of it because he can't do it as long and by the time I get the camera his head is half way to the ground.


We have been super busy this weekend (Brian had a 3 day) with a trip to Rothenberg and a girls shopping day for me today. I have a million pictures including some great fall pics, but I am going to spread them out on the blog as I find time this week. Hannah starts swimming lessons this week and I have a few meetings, but I'm sure I can find some time to post them.